FIRE IN MAMATA’S WEST BENGAL

Bengal has been burning for more than a fortnight and the state government seems to be still adamant on not seeking any assistance from the Centre despite the fact that the Union Home Ministry has repeatedly offered to do so. It’s not a mere coincidence that Bengal is ruled by Trinamool Congress and the firebrand Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is heading the local government. It is turning out to be a classic example of strained Centre-state relationship. Mamata says no to extra central troops and the only reason for that seems to be that she wants to help the rioters to burn and loot without any hindrance. This is the allegation levelled by her opponents, mainly the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that has been heading the Union Government much against the wishes of Mamata.

Last week more than half a dozen law-makers of the BJP were detained by Bengal Police as they were trying to enter the state. According to the local police the law and order situation in the state would have been disturbed had the BJP MPs and MLAs staged agitation there. Earlier Mamata had said that the state Governor had threatened her on phone but the charge was denied by the latter.

This is in sharp contradiction to the political behaviour of Didi in the last decade. There was a time when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Bengal. Didi took him to her house -- a small, barrack-like simple home--where Vajpayee touched the feet of her mother and sought her blessings. Later, in Delhi, she attended a function to release a book by BJP Leader and writer Tarun Vijay on Communist terrorism in the presence of RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat, and George Fernandes eulogising Tarun’s work as true patriotism that exposes the barbaric face of the communists. Ironically, today she has become the symbol of the worst social strife, failed governance and chaotic polity in a Bengal once known for revolutionaries, enlightened patriotic saints, nationalist scientists, social reformers, and Hindu-Muslim togetherness till the so-called left ‘Left Revolution’.

Mamata Wave

Ever since the Left Parties lost to the ‘Mamata Wave’ two and half years ago, Bengal changed a lot. Her rule can easily be termed as an inferno of that cultural legacy and a hell for the enlightened Bengali who always believed in dialogue and co-existence. With no industry, no entrepreneurship, no push to excellence in academics, it is now a collage of attacks on police, the burning and looting of the houses of Hindus, mullahs demanding custody of a 17-yearold boy whose Facebook comment infuriated them and they wanted Sharia justice for him -hanging -- with the state machinery not just looking the other side, but stopping all central assistance and unleashing a tirade against the Governor, who simply asked her about the law and order situation. Like an empress of erstwhile rules in India asking her courtiers in a famine “how can people say they are dying of hunger”, she asks, “How can anyone say Hindus in Bengal are in distress?” She is telling the truth. The fact is Hindus in Bengal have gone beyond the level of distress. Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, a poet and a former speaker, spoke too timidly to a Chief Minister allowing crowds to burn and loot. It’s such anarchy that makes it apt to describe the situation as a constitutional crisis.

The Mamata regime has seen the rise of many anti-social elements in the political arena. This is contrary to the expectations from her. The people of Bengal voted to change the guard of the state because they were tired of goondaism of the Communists. However, Mamata followed the same pattern. Two villains of the Basirhat riots --Trinamool MPs Idris Ali and Ahmed Hassan Imran -- have an interesting history. Both of them were involved in BasirhatBaduria violence. It soon spread to nearby areas. Hindus do have a cultural and religious grandeur and one of its best expressions is in the form of Jagannath Yatra. This was attacked in Basirhat on July 3 by a Muslim crowd and later the Rapid Action Force personnel, BSF and Police personnel were assaulted. Secular media ignored it because it was the Jagannath Yatra. A police complaint said, a BJP activist Kartik Ghosh was attacked by a sloganshouting Muslim crowd - he was left alone on a deserted road seeking help - police waited three and a half hours to take him to hospital and he was soon dead. His body was seized by Trinamool Congress workers, his sons were forced by police to cremate him in Kolkata crematorium and were not allowed to take his body to his home in Basirhat. The person, who tried to help Hindus--Tapan Ghosh of Hindu Samhati-is a crusader for the human rights of the persecuted and terrified Hindus. He tried his best but in front of an oppressive state apparatus, what else could have been done?

THE Mamata regime has seen the rise of many anti-social elements in the political arena. This is contrary to the expectations from her. The people of Bengal voted to change the guard of the state because they were tired of goondaism of the Communists.

Sensitivity and humane values

Surprisingly, there is a secular order of the media and the state machinery that hands over the dead bodies of the terrorists to their families, allows huge crowds at their funerals and demands stopping usage of certain kinds of bullets and guns against the violent mobs of the valley who attack our soldiers. But if it pertains to the governance of a “secular government”, all such “sensitivities and humane values” are forgotten. Trinamool would like the present situation to be presented as a HinduMuslim issue. It is not. It’s only a matter of a failed state apparatus and assault by criminals with active help from across the border groups with state protection. How long will Didi continue to oppress people’s anger and wish to live in a ‘free’ society?

While on one hand, Trinamool Congress is enjoying mammoth majority on the floor of Bengal State Assembly thus making the survival of Mamata Government comfortable, on the other hand, the growing unrest, protest and anger among all walks of the Bengali society is making it difficult for her government to rule the state comfortably. There is a vast difference between ruling the state and ruling the minds of the people. It would be better if Didi realises this before it gets too late.